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Seattle Circuit
|image = |length = |country = |roadway = Tarmac |type = Real World Location |games = Gran Turismo 2 Gran Turismo 2000 Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec Gran Turismo 4 }} is a fictional street circuit based on the roads of Seattle, WA. It features in Gran Turismo 2, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec and Gran Turismo 4. It also features as the only circuit in the PS2 demo Gran Turismo 2000, a precursor to GT3. The circuit also has a shorter variant, Seattle Short Circuit, in Gran Turismo 2. It could return in Gran Turismo 5 as part of a DLC pack. Circuit Layout Sector 1 The Seattle Circuit begins with a long stretch along the waterside, curving gently to the left, and followed by a tight, double-apex right-hand hairpin with very little room for error. This takes you under the elevated highway and round the back of the pit-lane. After a short straight follows a tricky left hander towards the top of the course. After a left kink, the circuit goes uphill and over three trademark jumps. At the top of the hill is a tight, awkward right hander where most cars are prone to understeer. This is the end of the first sector. Sector 2 Sector 2 is very technical, but is mostly mid-speed turns. After the mid-length straight, you go into a right hander into another very short straight, which leads you into Turn 7. After Turn 7, You are lead almost instantly into Turn 8 (right) and another 2 follow-up turns 9 and 10. Turn 9 (left) is a softer, less technical turn that is easy to master, but the acception is that it leads into Turn 10, which is a tight left hairpin turn. Luckily, a straight comes after this, with a another gentle right-hander. after this last long downhill straight, you brake hard into the right-hand Turn 10. Turn 11 is a right-left chicane that leads into another short, thin straight, about half-way through which is the check point that ends the sector. Sector 3 Sector 3 contains the rest of the circuit. After the second half of the straight, another two-part chicane (left-right) is encountered, although the turn is noticiblely looser than 11. Turn 13 is a sharp, acute right-hand turn just after the straight out of Turn 12 which heads under the freeway. A light, short curve is the last speed section befor entering the infamous Turn 15, a tight, tricky, thin chicane. Turn 15 is arguably, the most difficult corner of the Seattle Circuit. To effectively drive through the corner, you have to keep a reasonable pace, while making use of the curb space provided. Too much speed or throttle coming out of the turn will result in understeer, usually crashing into the outside wall at the exit of the turn. Following this very tricky chicane is a long straight leading to the finish line. City Streets Until CenturyLink Field and Convention Center were built, it was actually possible to drive the Seattle Circuit in real life, assuming you ignored one-way streets. It can still be driven, aside from the section in the Kingdome parking lot, but with the coming demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, only a close approximation will be possible in the vicinity of the Seattle waterfront. The (normal direction) race starts on Alaskan Way, near S Washington St. It continues north to Marion St (just past the ferry terminal), where the hairpin takes you to the parking lane under the viaduct. A left turn is made on Yesler Way, followed by the slight left onto James St. The 90-degree right turn is made to 5th Ave, which becomes 5th Ave S near the slight right. The next 90-degree right turn is onto S Washington St. The next slight right is to Prefontaine Pl S, followed by a slight left to Yesler Way (again), this time westbound. The tight left hairpin takes you to 2nd Ave S. As you pass King Street Station on the right, you take a slight left to 4th Ave S, with the Kingdome and (in GT4) Safeco Field in the distance. The road to the right that curves back to the left (inaccessible in the game) is the western end of I-90...or was until the realignment along Edgar Martinez Dr S; just past that, you turn right to S Royal Brougham Way (SR 519; in GT4, the southbound sign visibly shows shields for SR 519, I-5, and I-90). The right and left chicanes take you through the Kingdome parking lot and back to Royal Brougham; at the end, the final hard right is onto Alaskan Way beneath the viaduct, and the left chicane (at S King St) puts you back on the waterfront section of Alaskan Way to the finish line. Race Series featuring Seattle Circuit Category:GT2 Circuits Category:GT3 Circuits Category:GT4 Circuits Category:Street Circuits